To this day, Josh Beckett haunts the Cleveland Indians franchise.
It all began on a cool October night in 2007 when Beckett twirled a gem to hand the Indians a crushing defeat in the American League Championship Series. The Tribe never recovered as the Sox, buoyed by Beckett's brilliance, erased a 3-1 deficit and advanced to the Fall Classic.
Nearly 4 years later, Beckett was frustrating the Indians again. On Tuesday night, the veteran right-hander tossed 6 2/3 innings of 1-run baseball to lead Boston to victory.
Beckett's batterymate, Jason Varitek, also had a huge game. The long-time Red Sox captain threw out a pair of would-be base stealers, and he cranked a critical 2-run homer off the right field foul pole in the 8th. The blast gave Boston a 4-1 advantage which proved to be the difference.
Fausto Carmona, despite allowing 4 runs, managed to work into the 9th, but his gritty effort failed to merit him a much-needed win. Carmona is now 3-5 on the season, and, in seemingly every start, he yields 1 big hit too many.
Offensively, the Tribe was off-balance the entire evening, and bad baserunning did not help matters. The Indians ran themselves into 4 outs on the basepaths because of poor judgment and over aggression.
Ezequiel Carrera's RBI single to center in the 2nd and Travis Buck's solo homer to right in the 9th accounted for the only 2 Cleveland tallies.
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| Buck's 2-run shot was too little, too late |
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